In many ways the challenges facing educators in this generation are greater than ever before. In the past,teachers had to deal with discipline and class participation. Today the battle being waged to keepstudents’ attention is unparalleled. In many circles,teachers have to compete with the nonstop action and excitement of iPods, cell phones and computers— in and out of the classroom.

A shidduchno one ever imagined

Torah

and Technology

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HamodiaJuly 27, 2011

8

T

HE AVERAGE

American teenager is plugged in to some form of media or another for as many asten hours a day. On top of that, mostkids and teens today aren’t interested inlearning something unless they see animmediate benefit to their lives — evenif the teacher presents it in a livelyfashion. Today’s teachers therefore havethe double challenge of presentingmaterial in an exciting and engagingmanner and showing its personalrelevance to students.Unfortunately, this problem affectsTorah educators as well. In a world of fast-moving visual images, how do weget students to stop and take note of their heritage, to help them becomepassionate about Torah? Is it possible toharness technology to make Torahmeaningful and relevant to the masseswithout compromising its depth or beauty?

“Thirty Is for Strength”

Rabbi Dan Roth, founder and director of Torah Live, a dynamic multimediaTorah organization, realized that manypeople today need to be taught Torah intheir language. He learned how to speakto this generation the hard way.Rabbi Roth’s very first day of teachingdid not go at all as planned. Originallyfrom London, he had been learning in

kollel

for many years in some of Israel’sfinest yeshivos, including Mir Yerushalayim and the

kollel

of RabbiTzvi Kushelevsky, one of the greatYerushalmi

Roshei Yeshivah

, when hestarted thinking about getting involvedin teaching.He decided to learn a night

seder

in

Pirkei Avos

to prepare material for lectures. He loved it so much that hebegan devoting more and more time toit, and soon realized that he had themakings of a

sefer

on his hands. To writea book, however, would require morethan a few hours a day. The idea of leaving full-time

Gemara

learning tostudy

Pirkei Avos

in depth didn’t seemright. He sought Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky’sadvice.“Age twenty is for pursuing; agethirty is for strength,” explained RabbiOrlofsky, quoting from